Tollgate final EIS released
Published 2:44 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
NORTH BEND — Something has been missing lately at the
Tollgate Farm property — the sound of construction anticipated by the
developers and dreaded by opposing parties.
The proposed development that would include houses and a
business park could have been started by now. But a string of lawsuits, the
city’s building moratorium and the preparation of the project’s Final
Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) have delayed construction.
Finally, four years after the property’s owners filed for
development permits, the FEIS has been released.
“It’s a huge relief to have this EIS out and go on to the next phase,”
said Campbell Mathewson, project director for Tollgate.
Located in southern North Bend, the 229-acre property is bordered
by 420th Avenue Southeast and Northeast Eighth Street. Boalch Avenue,
State Route 202 and other roads also run through the land, as well as
the Snoqualmie Valley Trail and the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad.
The property’s applications were turned in by Miller Land and
Timber Company to the city of North Bend in April 1996, and Tollgate’s Draft
EIS (DEIS) was released in August 1998. Public comments were taken on
the draft document and it has taken until now to complete the final
assessment of the proposed development.
The FEIS is contained in two volumes and lists possible
impacts, mitigational measures for those impacts, significant unavoidable
effects (even after mitigation), written statements from the DEIS public
comment period and responses to those letters.
However, Mathewson said that the proposed developments’ impacts
were minimized as much as possible.
“Are there impacts? Sure. Any time you build a building or
parking lot, there are impacts,” Mathewson said, explaining that the
document doesn’t have many significant unmitigatable impacts.
“In terms of protecting the public interest, I certainly think the city
has done a good job,” he added.
The document features a Revised Mitigation Alternative, referred to
as Alternative 2. Developers prepared the revised alternative after the release
of the DEIS and designated it as the current proposal for Tollgate Farm.
As another option, the FEIS lists Alternative 1, which would result in no
construction on the property.
Development downsized
from original plan
Many people and organizations wrote letters that opposed all or
part of the Tollgate project and its impacts, and in response, the FEIS
lists mitigational requirements to minimize negative effects. A significant
change from the original project to the new alternative is size.
Alternative 2 establishes a master plan that features approximately
56 residential homes on average lot sizes of 35,000 square feet on the
eastern portion of the land, an 800,000-square foot industrial park for the central
area and a 180,000-square foot office park in the western portion. A
25,000-square foot commercial area is also proposed at the intersection of
Boalch Avenue and SR-202.
Approximately 62 acres or 27 percent of the land will be
developed, with the remaining 167 acres to be landscaped or left as open space.
This alternative is scaled down from other versions found in the DEIS, where
at one point, up to 365 homes were proposed. The size of the industrial
park is the same as proposed in the DEIS, but the western portion was
changed from multi-family homes to an office park.
In response to the DEIS, many people indicated that the document
did not do enough studies and wanted a supplemental EIS done. The
FEIS states that a supplemental EIS was not necessary because Alternative 2’s
impacts are generally less than the studies analyzed in the original document.
Significant effects
to environment still possible
The Tollgate Farm property has several natural resources within
its boundaries, including the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River, Ribary,
Silver and Gardiner creeks and several wetland areas.
Many elements of the proposed development are not expected to
have significant unavoidable impacts if mitigational requirements are
followed. These elements include earth, groundwater, flooding, traffic,
air quality, fisheries, energy, noise, potential releases to the environment
(residential use of materials), land and shoreline use, population housing
and employment, aesthetics, light and glare, public services, and
utilities. Each category was analyzed after the DEIS public comment period, and
was re-evaluated with Alternative 2 in order to reduce impacts described in
the original document.
However, even with Alternative 2, several environmental elements
could still be adversely affected, including surface water quality and
quantity, wetlands, vegetation and wildlife.
As for surface water, the FEIS states that the project’s
impervious surfaces would generally increase the water runoff volume for the area.
Animals and their habitat are also at risk from the development.
The document states that because approximately 43 acres of pasture and
shrub and 69 acres of mixed forest habitat will be lost, wildlife displacement
and death could occur. Also, roads that currently run through the property
are already a source of danger for wildlife, but the risk would be
increased with Alternative 2.
Tollgate’s wetlands would also experience wildlife loss.
Approximately 2.5 acres of wetland buffer would be “encroached upon” and
.1 acre of wetland would be filled in as a result of the project. The FEIS lists
the loss of water quality and forested wildlife habitat as a consequence of
filling the wetlands.
The document also reports that increased traffic, new houses and
the consequent use of lawn and garden chemicals, as well as the general
alteration of the wetlands, could reduce amphibian populations.
Possible impacts to historical
and cultural features
Besides environmental, there are also several historical and cultural
aspects of Tollgate Farm that could be impacted by the proposed
development. Many people say that the land should be preserved because it is
part of local and state history.
Tollgate Farm and a prehistorical site on the land are eligible for
the National Register of Historic Places and for King County and North
Bend Landmark designation.
The Tollgate land is an ancient prairie, which Native
Americans cleared and maintained for hundreds of years. Later on, a series of
European settlers found the cleared land to be useful for homesteading.
In 1905, Mary A. Miller, wife of Seattle businessman William
Winlock Miller, purchased the property. After her death, Mary Miller left the
property to her two sons. The sons’ descendants currently own the land.
Historical records show that Tollgate Farm got its name from a
toll bridge once located on the property, where money was collected for
repairs to the wagon road that crossed Snoqualmie Pass.
According to the FEIS, the Tollgate property held the earliest
dairy farm in the Valley, which was an important part of the state’s history.
Several historically significant buildings are located on the site, including
the Tollgate house, one of the few surviving Queen Anne-style houses in
the state.
Areas that could be altered or destroyed from the proposed
development would include the buildings, a possible Native American burial
site and historical pasture fields.
However, the FEIS stated that without protection, the Tollgate
buildings could decay and the burial area could be disturbed. On the other
hand, if the proposed development is not constructed, the structures could
still fall to ruin. Mitigational efforts to preserve the buildings and burial site
are listed in the FEIS, but even with those efforts, there could be an
inevitable loss of rural historic landscape. The FEIS states, “Cumulative
impacts could result that impair the ability to understand the past and would
result in a loss of
